Caps Double Up Devils, 6-3

For the third time in a span of four games, the Capitals erupted for four goals in a single period on Monday night against the Devils in New Jersey. The Caps needed their first two four-goal periods to erase multi-goal deficits in comeback victories, but their Monday night outburst in Newark broke open a 1-1 game in the middle period, spurring them to a 6-3 victory, their first on the road this season.

Charlie Lindgren was outstanding in the Washington nets, the Caps excelled on special teams, and they were opportunistic with their chances at 5-on-5, getting a six-pack of goals from six different skaters. It all added up to victory, the Caps' fourth in their last five games.
"We didn't have a great start to the game," says Caps winger Conor Sheary, who scored his team-leading fourth goal in the second. "The second half of the first was pretty good, and then we came out in the second and we were just opportunistic with chances. They had theirs, and Chucky held strong when we needed him to.
"Both special teams did a good job killing and then getting on the power play, too. It was just kind of a snowball effect; we got some momentum and we were able to pop four."
Caps captain Alex Ovechkin claimed yet another milestone with his power-play goal late in the second; it stood up as the game-winning goal - the 122nd game-winner of his career - moving him past Gordie Howe (121) for second place on the NHL's all-time ledger.

"It's pretty cool, obviously, to be in that company, and passing those legends," says Ovechkin. "It's a pretty cool moment."
The Devils scored first, taking a 1-0 lead at 4:49 of the first when Nathan Bastian scored from in tight on a second effort, seconds after his first bid hit the goalpost.
Shortly after the midpoint of the first, the Capitals pulled even. Garnet Hathaway squeezed his way down the right-wing wall and behind the New Jersey net with the puck. As the Devils began to pressure him, Beck Malenstyn came in for support, collecting the puck and putting it to the front for Nic Dowd, whose shot beat Mackenzie Blackwood from just above the paint, tying the game at 1-1 at 10:46.
Washington took control of the contest in the middle period, scoring four goals in less than nine minutes to open up their biggest lead of the season to date. The barrage started innocently enough; Nick Jensen rimmed the puck into the New Jersey end from the right point as the Caps were changing lines. The puck rolled around the back of the net, and Garnet Hathaway jumped off the Washington bench, collected it in stride, and buried it from the left circle at 9:16 of the middle frame, lifting the Caps to a 2-1 lead.
Seconds later, the Devils went on their third power play of the game with a chance to pull even again. Instead, Jesper Bratt committed an egregious turnover in his own end, putting the puck right on Conor Sheary's stick in the slot. Sheary didn't miss, going to the shelf to make it 3-1 with the Caps' first shorthanded goal of the season - and the first of Sheary's NHL career - at 10:03.
When the Caps got a power play of their own later in the second, Ovechkin continued his pursuit of Howe by pounding a one-timer home from his left dot office at 17:14, his third goal of the season and the 783rd of his NHL career. Howe finished his career with 801 goals.
Thirty-three seconds after Ovechkin's goal, Jensen netted his first of the season, putting a wrister past Blackwood from the blue line at 17:47.

Ex-Caps goalie Vitek Vanecek came on in relief to start the third, and there was no quit in the Devils. New Jersey dominated the first half of the third period, pulling to within two of the Caps on Tomas Tatar's net mouth scramble goal at 4:08 and Bratt's breakaway at 9:06.
With just over six minutes remaining, Lindgren made arguably the best - and certainly the most important - of his many strong stops on the night, denying the dangerous Yegor Sharangovich from point blank range with his right pad.
"Just a heck of a play by I think it was Bratt that passed it," recounts Lindgren. "I just followed the puck, and Sharangovich was right there, and I just kind of got my pad on it. It was a big save at a big time."
It was, and it helped cement Lindgren's first win as a member of the Capitals. Washington settled things down thereafter, taking the starch out of any hope of a late Devils comeback when Anthony Mantha fed Aliaksei Protas for a nifty 2-on-1 tally with 3:49 remaining, accounting for the 6-3 final.
"It was good," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "I didn't like obviously the first 10 minutes of the third period. We were just loose. It's a 5-1 game, and we were just too loose. We didn't play the game the right way. And because of that, it all of a sudden it's 5-3, and you're looking at a closer game, and our goalie had to make some really big saves. But short of that 10 minutes, it was a pretty good road game."